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A 1970s-modern house, tucked among bungalows in Arlington’s Clarendon community, recently got a sleek renovation from Architect Ben Ames and Interior Designer Catherine Hailey. The homeowners wanted to enlarge the kitchen and add a family room and home office. Amestudio Inc. and Hailey Design LLC did just that – and much more. Ames completely reconfigured the first floor, with the exception of the library. He added a family room to the rear of the house that flows seamlessly from the now-enlarged kitchen, plus a home office in a tower with huge windows on three sides. Hailey helped the couple select furnishings for the house that pop with personality. One wall in the wife’s home office is a shocking pink called Hot Lips.
‘Slices of Light’
Ames faced a challenging floor plan. “The footprint of the existing house was crazy, chopped up, strange, and unusual,” the architect says, adding that the original house felt dark and closed in. The property didn’t offer great views, and the owners wanted privacy, so Ames captured light with large front windows, skylights, and strategically placed vertical slot windows – or as he says, “slices of light.” “I tried to bring in light along the edges without focusing on images of neighbors’ homes,” Ames says.
“The play of light through those windows is not something we particularly anticipated, and it’s just beautiful,” says the husband, a technology executive at a nonprofit. “The house feels very light, yet still private.” The living room, which is brightly lit in the afternoon sun, has an angled wall of windows that overlooks the front yard, where the couple likes to entertain in warm weather.
